Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Band-Aid + Bondage = Bandage

Herve Leger Aveline Bandage Dress, $1,560 at net-a-porter.com

A-list celebrities like Victoria Beckham have been flaunting the Bandage dress all over Hollywood; unfortunately, this mummy-like saran wrap is unflattering on everyone above a size 0. The tightness of the dress is reminiscent of the '80s (enough said on that decade; see my earlier post about leggings) and of a tawdry dominatrix in black leather. While the silhouette and color mitigate the harshness of those images, the dress nonetheless embalms rather than frees the modern woman. After all, men dressed women in tight clothes as a form of domination and control (think of corsets in Victorian England and teacup-sized shoes in China). While I certainly believe in form-fitting garb, I refuse to apply the band-aid as a kind of bondage.

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